China is going to focus on energy savings consumption and online commerce…
Comments »Monthly Archives: January 2012
The Aussie and Kiwi Dollars Fall for a Third Day on European Debt Concerns
Gold Traders Are Feeling Good Since a Near Bear Market Was Avoided Last Month
Until money printing stops around the world I do not see why gold would be a bearish bet.
Comments »The Euro Crisis Has Curtailed the Reconstruction in Japan; GDP Expected to Shrink
The Sterling Hits a 15 Month High Against the Euro
Hungary’s Bonds Rally Again After a Pledge to Work With the IMF
German Confidence Falls After Factory Orders Plunge
Asia Trades Mostly Down While Europe and U.S. Futures Reach for Hopium
Asian Stocks Down on Exports
2012 Doom Debunked
You’ll still have to pay taxes in 2013
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpYeekQkAdc&feature=related 450 300] Comments »Even Stephen Hawking is Stumped
Pimpin’ For Paul
[youtube://http;//www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5I0E75G8-g 450 300]
Comments »
Asia Opens to the Downside
Funny: Despite BofA’s Rally Today a Bushel of Corn Costs More
Henry Blodget Still Jumping the Shark
Obama to Share Missile Defense Secrets with Russia
President Obama signaled Congress this week that he is prepared to share U.S. missile defense secrets with Russia.
In the president’s signing statement issued Saturday in passing into law the fiscal 2012 defense authorization bill, Mr. Obama said restrictions aimed at protecting top-secret technical data on U.S. Standard Missile-3 velocity burnout parameters might impinge on his constitutional foreign policy authority.
As first disclosed in this space several weeks ago, U.S. officials are planning to provide Moscow with the SM-3 data, despite reservations from security officials who say that doing so could compromise the effectiveness of the system by allowing Russian weapons technicians to counter the missile. The weapons are considered some of the most effective high-speed interceptors in the U.S. missile defense arsenal.
There are also concerns that Russia could share the secret data with China and rogue states such as Iran and North Korea to help their missile programs defeat U.S. missile defenses.
Read the rest here.
Comments »Now Iranian oil embargo WILL NOT cause a price spike…
That’s incredible, as I could have sworn just yesterday every expert knew an Iranian oil embargo would most definitely cause a price spike. Where do these news stations find their elusive “most experts” I wonder?
Comments »Despite the uptick in oil prices thanks to Iran’s threats last week, experts don’t foresee a major oil price spike even as evidence mounts that tougher oil sanctions against the country are beginning to bite.
Crude prices have risen about 2% since Iran vowed to shut down the Strait of Hormuz last week. About a sixth of the world’s oil production passes through the Strait.
It is believed that Iran’s posturing is the result of ever tightening sanctions as Iran spars with the West over its nuclear program. Iran says its nuclear intentions are peaceful, but many experts suspect they are designed to produce weapons.
On Wednesday the noose around Iran’s economy tightened further. Reports said Europe may be close to enacting an outright oil embargo on Iran. About 15% of Iran’s oil exports go to Europe.
The European news comes after President Obama sanctioned Iran’s central bank last month in an attempt to restrict Iran’s oil exports and a similar, stronger move from England.
Bulls Manage a Magic Trick
Despite rising yields in Europe, some crappy bond auctions, the EURO tanking, and being at the top of a recent rally the bulls manage to turn a rut into a rally…just b4 BLS data tomorrow. Can we finally say that the U.S. is decoupling from the Euro crisis ?
DOW down 3
NASDAQ up 21
S&P up 3.7
Are low yields pushing money into stocks
Comments »Near-zero interest rates aimed at pushing investors out of bonds and into stocks appeared to gain some traction as 2011 drew to a close, raising hopes that investors are ready to take on more risk.
Flows into stock-based exchange-traded funds accelerated late in the year even as the broader market meandered and money moved out of stock-based mutual funds.
That was a sign to some strategists that late-year sellers for tax purposes were moving not to the safety of bond funds or cash but rather staying in stocks. Those sellers opted for ETFs, which are more flexible than mutual funds as they can be traded like stocks, but more diversified than equities as they provide exposure to entire sectors rather than just individual companies.
“This follows a trend several industry sources have noted recently; namely, that tax-loss selling of single-stock investments as well as mutual funds tends to get recycled into exchange-traded products,” Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at ConvergEx in New York, said in a note to clients.
Colas attributes the move in large part to low interest rates.
